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hanger

[hang-er]
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noun
  1. a shoulder-shaped frame with a hook at the top, usually of wire, wood, or plastic, for draping and hanging a garment when not in use.
  2. a part of something by which it is hung, as a loop on a garment.
  3. a contrivance on which things are hung, as a hook.
  4. Automotive. a double-hinged device linking the chassis with the leaf springs on vehicles having solid axles.
  5. a light saber of the 17th and 18th centuries, often worn by sailors.
  6. a person who hangs something.
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Origin of hanger

1400–50; late Middle English hangere; see hang, -er1
Can be confusedhangar hanger
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for hangers

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • They are the pothooks and hangers of surgery, and I have gone that far.

    Lord Kilgobbin

    Charles Lever

  • The other fellows are just hangers on—camp followers, so to speak.

  • Bosco Blithers, professor of penmanship and author of “Pot-hooks and Hangers.”

    Three Hats

    Alfred Debrun

  • Some ran to the guns, others got hold of their hangers and small-arms.

    Roger Willoughby

    William H. G. Kingston

  • “If we do, we must keep one eye open and our hangers by our sides,” observed Tubbs.

    The Two Supercargoes

    W.H.G. Kingston

British Dictionary definitions for hangers

hanger

noun
    1. any support, such as a hook, strap, peg, or loop, on or by which something may be hung
    2. See coat hanger
    1. a person who hangs something
    2. (in combination)paperhanger
  3. a bracket designed to attach one part of a mechanical structure to another, such as the one that attaches the spring shackle of a motor car to the chassis
  4. a wood on a steep hillside, characteristically beech growing on chalk in southern England
    1. a loop or strap on a sword belt from which a short sword or dagger was hung
    2. the weapon itself
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hangers

hanger

n.

early 15c., "one who hangs (something)," especially "hangman;" agent noun of hang (v.). Meaning "something that is suspended" is late 15c. Meaning "thing from which something is hung" is from 1690s. Specifically of coat or dress hangers from 1873. Hanger-on is from 1540s.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper